Personnel: Raymond Scott (piano, celeste); Art Ryerson, Vince Maffei (guitar); Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Benny Lagasse, Slats Long (clarinet, alto saxophone); Stan Webb, Hugo Winterhalter (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Reggie Merrill (alto saxophone); Dave Harris, Wendell DeLory, Charles McCamish, Art Drelinger (tenor saxophone); Dave Wade, Russ Case, Stephen Market, Lawrence Stearns, Bert LaMar, Gordon Griffin, Mike Meola, Willie Kelly (trumpet); Irving Sontag, Joe Vargas (trombone); Bernie Leighton, Walter Gross (piano); Lou Shoobe, Fred Whiting, Ted Harkins, Chubby Jackson (bass); Johnny Williams, Andy Picard (drums).
Recorded in New York between 1937 and 1940. Includes liner notes by Irwin Chusid.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Recording information: 1937 - 1939.
Though few people have ever heard the name Raymond Scott, almost everyone knows his music. In the 1940s the musical director of Warner Brothers Studios, a man named Carl Stalling, began using adaptations of Scott's wildly inventive compositions to season Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies animated shorts. Many of Scott's pieces, therefore, such as "Powerhouse" and "New Year's Eve In A Haunted House," immediately bring to mind visions of Bugs and Daffy. To relegate this man's brilliant work to mere "cartoon music" however, is gravely unjust.
Using the jazz quintet and traditional swing music as a springboard, Scott's aesthetic is complex, intense, whimsical and utterly original. Employing accelerated meters, radical juxtaposition and collage elements, heavy percussion (including xylophones, bells, whistles and chimes) and startling dynamic and phrasing techniques, Scott's group sound like nothing that came before or has come since. The real appeal of this work, though, is that while it deconstructs, warps and electrifies traditional jazz, it remains immanently accessible. RECKLESS NIGHTS is the perfect introduction to the challenging and charming work of this oft-overlooked artist.
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